It’s getting gory in the old-bull paddock

‘Two old bulls in a paddock" is how former Victorian Liberal premier
Jeff Kennett
describes a tussle between
Peter Costello
and
Michael Kroger
. The enmity between the former factional allies in the Liberal party spilled into the open this week with claims the former asked the latter for assistance in organising a political comeback.

The infighting amongst lions of the Victorian Liberal party has provided an intriguing sideshow in the colourful tableau of federal politics in a week when Labor’s woes have already yielded more than the usual dose of drama. Costello, a former federal treasurer, has denied the claims that he discussed with Kroger – an investment banker and Liberal stalwart – a possible comeback and which seats would be options.

“It has no foundation in fact and is lurid in its imagination," he says, linking it to the recent demoting of
Helen Kroger
on the Victorian Liberal senate ticket.

“This story has been briefed by Michael Kroger. He is upset that his ex-wife was demoted on the Senate ticket."

AFR
AFR

Kroger was not commenting.

In blaming Kroger for putting the story around, Costello has also confirmed the bitter falling-out between the two men, who were once close friends. The pair forged an influential political alliance after working together as union-busting lawyers on the Dollar Sweets case during the 1980s.

The drama among the Victorian Liberals has been brewing for some months and is not just a showdown between the “two bulls", Kroger and Costello.

It is also about a new group of ambitious young Liberal MPs from Victoria who want to put those old bulls out to pasture and move on from the old factional stoushes, including between the Kroger-Costello forces and the Kennett camp that cleft the party in the 1990s. These MPs were preselected under new rules that diminish the influence of the old powerbrokers.

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This crop of promising MPs includes
Josh Frydenberg
in Kooyong,
Kelly O’Dwyer
in Costello’s old seat of Higgins, Dan Tehan in Wannon and Alan Tudge in Aston. And it is their seats that Costello allegedly considered as options for a comeback, though he apparently was said not to be keen on unseating his former staffer, O’Dwyer.

O’Dwyer dismissed the whole story as a “pure fantasy", which had been categorically denied by Costello, whom she described as a “very honest man".

But the idea of the urbane Costello moving from Camberwell’s leafy avenues to the rural town of Hamilton in the western Victorian seat of Wannon to stage a comeback has inspired some mirth.

“How absurd is that?" said one Liberal. “I mean, can you imagine Peter Costello living in Hamilton? It’s just a bizarre fabrication."

However, some among those who dismiss the story of Costello plotting a comeback admit there may be just a grain of truth in it.

“There may have been a comment [from Costello] like; ‘sometimes I wish I was back in the game’," suggests one Liberal MP.

Australia’s longest-serving Treasurer, who coveted but never attained the job of Prime Minister, may well look on with irritation and envy as Coalition leader
Tony Abbott
gets closer to that goal.

Costello criticised Abbott’s economic credentials in his memoir and penned a column last year that infuriated some Liberals by highlighting Abbott’s past links to the Democratic Labor Party and warning against the protectionist sentiments espoused by the DLP. But a Costello comeback seems unlikely.

Kennett says the introduction of membership plebiscites to pick candidates had undermined the old subtle exercise of power and patronage within the party.

“Changes to the way the party operates have sidelined factional leaders. There are no factional heavyweights in Victoria any more," Kennett told The Australian Financial Review.

The claims about the Costello comeback surfaced this week and were aired on ABC television’s 7.30 Report after an aborted putsch against Kroger’s former wife, Senator Helen Kroger.

A group of Liberal Senators, including Victorian Liberal
Mitch Fifield
, hatched a plot to oust her as chief Coalition whip in the Senate under the cover of the federal government’s budget on Tuesday and were only stopped by intervention from Abbott.

Her supporters claim it was part of factional power plays but her critics say there have long been concerns about her handling of the role. One Liberal MP said there was probably truth to both positions, observing that the rancour that had surrounded her demotion from the second to third spot on the Liberal Senate ticket last month made it difficult for Kroger to perform effectively as whip, a role that involves communication with colleagues.

Kennett, a strong supporter of Premier
Ted Baillieu
, downplayed the likely truth of the Costello comeback rumour, saying he had seen both men several times in the recent past and neither had mentioned it.

In the middle of the last decade, infighting in the Liberal Party state branch was endemic as the then opposition struggled to take points off a dominant state Victorian Labor administration. The arrival of David Kemp as president and Tony Nutt (now Baillieu’s chief of staff) heralded greater discipline and also the revamp of the pre-selection system.

Kennett doubts there will be a re-run of that public brawling, partly because of Baillieu’s style. “Ted Baillieu is a very different character in terms of those who went before him. He has very good values and tries to bring about resolution by consensus rather than dictating," Kennett says.

He notes that the story has “only come about since the change of Senate order" but says this had nothing to do with factions, rather the will of the “broad church" of membership “looking to the future". “This is just part of the new system, some people don’t like it," he says.

One party source says the weakening of Kroger’s reach is demonstrated by the leak seeking to damage Costello.

“Yesterday’s effort on 7.30 was a clear indication that he is only able now to exert influence through salting stories in the media. He’s like a fly with one wing buzzing around the room and banging into the window," says the source.

Another sign of the diminishing weight is the absence of “Krogerites" in the recently closed round of pre-selections for the next federal election in five Labor-held seats.